Ten Dollar Oil

Strong demand for renewable energy may drive the demand for fossil fuels down thereby driving down the price of oil to $10/barrel. That’s the scenario some large utilities and investors are acting upon. Renewables continue to mature, and have recently reached performance and cost thresholds that make them appealing alternatives. Particularly with the acceptance by the general public that is buying solar panels, buying electric cars, and buying more efficient devices, the market forces are increasingly in private and personal control. Projecting the renewable technologies, more efficient solar panels, better batteries, wiser utilization, and possibly fuels like hydrogen mean people will be less drawn to fossil fuels for a variety of reasons. As the new technologies are increasingly in demand and as they continue to evolve, the demand increases, the volume increases, and therefore the prices go down. Ironically, the resulting decrease in demand for fossil fuels is expected to drive those prices down, too; but in that case it is because cheap because the high-cost providers are driven out of business (possibly shifting to doing business in renewables.) Of course, if demand for oil drops enough that the costs do hit $1,000 peak oil, it may not matter if hardly anyone is buying and using it.